Sci-Toons: Fun Videos Convey Serious Science
Posted on November 5th, 2015 by Mary Lord
What is graphene? How do we see color? These are just two of the questions Brown University researchers answer in a series of engaging animated videos called Sci-Toons designed for informal and after-school science programs.
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Tags: After School, asbestos, Brown University, Climate Change, Curriculum, Geology, graphene, informal science, Internet Resources, Lesson Plans, RNA, Science Research, Videos, Web Resources
In this lesson to teach middle school students how a spacecraft gets from the surface of the Earth to Mars, students first investigate rockets and how they are able to get us into space, then discuss the nature of an orbit as well as how orbits enable us to get from planet to planet.
What do 6th and 7th graders know about where energy comes from, how much we use, and how that affects our daily lives? EnergyTrends.org is hosting a video contest for public school students to find out. Deadline is midnight May 29, 2015. 
Ultra-tiny nanoscale engineered materials and technologies show up in products from cosmetics to medicine. To help teach this rapidly expanding area of STEM, TryNano has assembled a webpage with lessons, games, and other free resources.
To encourage more schools to teach computer science, the nonprofit Code.org has launched Code Studio — a set of tools, lesson plans, and curriculum to help students in kindergarten through high school explore the underlying concepts behind coding. The site includes a dashboard for teachers to monitor their students’ progress.
Middle school students learn about the engineering design process by building a model of an innovative human shelter inspired and informed by an animal habitat. They then present their work, explaining what attribute of the animal structure influenced their design. 
In this activity, part of a robotics design curricular unit, teams of students in grades 4 – 8 learn how to program LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT intelligent bricks so that one can remotely control the other, gaining skills and an appreciation for wireless communications as they play “robot soccer.” 
In this delicious exercise, middle school students in teams of 3 to 5 learn about the field of industrial engineering by creating an assembly line to pack as many snack bags in 2 minutes as possible. They then see if they can improve their process.
